
	Platform PC Genre Puzzle Publisher MumboJumbo Developer MumboJumbo ESRB E (Everyone) Released January 12, 2011

- Plenty of Tetris-style gameplay in a variety of different modes, including a charmingly eccentric story mode

- As if the theories, both scientific and theological, of how the earth was created weren’t already enough, here’s a third possibility – little deities pulling “evolutionary” chains together, all within seven days

Review: Puzzle Dimension (PC) Review: Tidalis (PC) Review: Civilization IV (PC)
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Chainz Galaxy

Score: 8.5 / 10

There are theories, both scientific and theological, as to how exactly the earth, its creatures and man himself came into being. Well, it’s simple really, according the new PC Tetris-style puzzle game, Chainz Galaxy: melding Creationism with Evolutionism, little guys bearing a passing resemblance to some universally worshipped fellow pulled chains together, connecting various pieces of the earth and its inhabitants – land, sea, dinosaurs, apes, man and modern technology to get us where we are today. Where’s that? Billions of people in the 21st-century modern

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world, including many that will certainly enjoy a charming, if not completely eccentric, casual puzzle game.

To be clear, Chainz Galaxy doesn’t take itself seriously as some sort of “meaning of life” answer, which we all know by now is 42. No, Chainz Galaxy is just a puzzle game that just happens to have a silly cartoonish story mode to carry along the chain-linking gameplay.

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Much like Tetris, the goal is to clear boards. Instead of multiple-colored geometric shapes or jewels, however, it is three or more chain links that must be “linked” together. There are two main types of links. The basic one, which can be arranged either vertically or horizontally; or the multisided link, which can be linked on any of its four sides. Links must be the same color to be connected, unless a “Wild Card” multicolored one is used, in which case two different colors can be linked. And there are also a few special links than can be used. One, once connected, can freeze the links for a short duration, allowing the gamer to connect as many as possible before unfreezing and clearing them all. There is a magnet link that collects all that particular color’s links off the board, which can result in a spectacular fireworks-style display as the links clear. There is a lighting bolt link, with similar pyrotechnic impressiveness, that clears the entire row up and down regardless of color.

In the story mode and its seven levels of approximately seven boards each (the seven “days” it takes to create the Chainz galaxy), another score-increasing goal is to free the “charms” from their links. These little golden treasures are the ones one would expect to see on a charm bracelet such as moons, butterflies or a plethora of others – 30 in all. The story mode is untimed, so gamers can play at their own casual pace.

If gamers get stuck looking for a move, a hint will show them where an available move is on the board. If there are no moves left to make, gamers simply just have to scramble the board, where the links wind up rearranging to random positions on the board, giving gamers an easy “reset” instead of simply ending the game.

For the story itself, after each level is cleared, a little cartoon shows the collection of tiny bearded guys using the completed chains to pull together another aspect of the little world they are creating, beginning with terra firma and the sea to fish and dinosaurs to apes to the technology and modernized world of today.

But there are more pressure-filled, challenging modes, including the puzzle mode, where gamers must completely clear the levels in a certain amount of moves. Arcade mode offers a timed mode that ups the tension on gamers to clear each as quickly as possible before time runs out.

With plenty of hours of casual gaming fun and a variety of modes that range from stress-free, go-at-your-own-pace, to timed arcade to mind-teasers, Chainz Galaxy is a very good puzzler that borrows from its Tetris inspiration while bringing a new element to the classic “connect three-or-more colored shapes/items” gameplay.

- Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com